Brad Thor joined Pat and Stu on radio this morning to discuss his new book, Code of Conduct, and the Iran nuclear deal that was announced the morning. Thor railed against the mainstream media, claiming their lack of intellectual curiosity has allowed the Obama administration to do whatever it wants, regardless of what it means for the country. Thor said the world is now a much more dangerous place because of the Iran deal, and Israel should be scared for its very existence.
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it may contain errors:
PAT: We're excited to have Brad Thor join us. Brad has a busy week here on the Blaze. Also, he has his book out now called Code of Conduct.
Brad, welcome to the Glenn Beck Program with Pat and Stu.
BRAD: Yeah. I'm glad to be here. And I promised Glenn that when we started this I would share a message with listeners. Glenn forwarded it to me this morning and wants everyone to know that his vocal cord rest is because he was screaming with delight over my new thriller Code of Conduct, which he says --
PAT: Wow.
BRAD: And, Glenn, if you disagree, please call in right now, Glenn, if you contest this. If you disagree. If I read your note wrong. But he said it is the best thriller he has ever read in his life. Is the phone ringing? Nope. There you go.
Best thriller of his life. Thank you, Glenn. Those words mean so much to me, my dear friend. Thank you.
STU: That message obviously approved by Glenn Beck, because he's not called in to dispute it.
PAT: Still not called in. That's great.
BRAD: So there you go.
PAT: So, Brad, how are you excited you about peace in our time? Not since Neville Chamberlain and his announcement have we felt this relaxed in the world and this safe and this secure. Thank you to the new Neville Chamberlain, Barack Obama. This is fantastic news. Are you as excited as we are about the deal with Iran?
BRAD: I have to tell you, there is nothing more -- I'm a race fan. Whether it's NASCAR or New Proliferation, I love races. So I can't wait to see this arms race kick off in the Middle East. I'm telling you, my money is on the Saudis. I like the way they operate. They're smooth, they're lean, they're fast. I think we'll see them spin up a program really quick.
I have to tell you, it will be exciting. We live in interesting times. We definitely do. And I'm going to start buying jerseys. I'm going to get Sunni jerseys. I'm going to go long on the Shia jerseys. I don't know. But, yeah, it is exciting. Very exciting.
STU: Brad, you've been writing not only international events, but this particular region for a long time. Going back to several books you have released which have essentially predicted the news, you know, Blacklist being the most recent, which essentially predicted the Snowden thing to an incredible amount of deal a couple years when it happened. So when you look at this, you're not just a guy who writes really entertaining thrillers. You're a guy who does a lot of research. Who looks at this stuff and is able to digest it in a way that -- can bring it to people in way they can actually understand it. When you look at this and the way the president and the media are reacting to the Iran deal, what does it make you think?
BRAD: Well, what's interesting is that the lack of curiosity ever about Barack Obama and why he does what he does has always dumbfounded me.
PAT: Yes.
BRAD: The media is so biased.
PAT: Oh, my gosh.
BRAD: And I know you never talk about that on your program. We talk about what bulldogs they are in the media. This is insane. I mean, this guy, Barack Obama, has managed to unite Sunni Muslims with Israel. I can't remember the last time I saw Israel and Sunni Muslims standing on the same side. I mean, it's astounding.
This is very, very bad. Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Now we're going to flood them with money and a nuke program, and we all expect this is going to end well. I really want to say this. To ABC, to NBC, to CBS, to PBS, to CNN, you all have let your country down. It is disgusting how the mainstream media has let this country down. And the world has just become a dramatically more dangerous place with this agreement because of this administration.
And, you know what, Israel should be terrified. In fact, I put out a tweet a little while ago and I said, you know what, Israel should have bombed Iran while they still had a friend in the White House. They should have done it while George Bush was in the White House. And they didn't. And I think that's a historic missed opportunity that the Israelis will regret and history will remember.
PAT: No question. No question. And I can't wait though to see some of the details of this deal which we've promised eliminates every pathway to a nuclear weapon for the Iranians. I -- I can't wait to see it. He's already promised to veto it anyway. So it's a done deal. It's a foregone conclusion. But you're right. It's just -- it's aggravating to watch. And it's frustrating to see the support he has in the media, rather than being watchdogs, they become lapdogs. But tell us about the new book. What is Code of Conduct about?
BRAD: So Code of Conduct is my new thriller. It came out last week. We are expecting tomorrow to find out a huge, huge placement on the New York Times best-seller's list. This is the most exciting thriller I've ever written. And it's based on two very, very interesting things. You know, Glenn coined the word faction. And he always says, what Brad Thor does is faction. You don't know where the facts end and the fiction begins.
And as we've talked about on this program before, I like to pick things that are in the news or about to explode in the news and weave them into my thrillers. The two things that I picked this year were back in the '80s, somebody down in Georgia, they don't know if it was Ted Turner or who it was, spent a fortune erecting these huge slabs of granite with this terrifying agenda written in about eight languages on the different slabs. They're calling it the American Stonehenge.
And I always thought, wow, that's bizarre. Out in some farmer's field in rural Georgia. Who would ever put these things up? Then a couple of years ago, I read an article about a very, very secret group within the UN. And I never touched the UN. And I had never written about them before. I thought they were a bunch of bozos. Didn't pay their parking tickets in New York. But I got interested because Ban Ki-Moon held a very secret meeting, rented a shaley in the Austrian Alps. This thing was like out of a Bond movie. And their agenda got leaked from this very secret meeting that he held, and several things on the agenda match up with these stones down in Georgia.
And it was beyond wild. And I said, you know what, this stuff, I can't say no to this. As a thriller writer, this is just too cool. And I'll weave that into Code of Conduct. So Code of Conduct kicks off with four seconds of video being transmitted to the White House that was anonymously captured halfway around the world. And the US government learns that probably one of the most ingenious terrorist attacks will be launched, not only in the US, but every other allied country simultaneously.
PAT: Wow. Looking forward to reading that. That's awesome. Now, don't you have something -- you have like 11 and a half million books in print, in this series.
BRAD: Yep. Correct. And you can read them in any order.
PAT: You don't mind? You probably would like them to start with this one, I would imagine.
BRAD: That is exactly right. This is the book. This is the book you'll see at the beach, at the lake, at the swimming pool. This is the one. And you know what, it's probably my best reviewed book ever, right down to the Associated Press.
PAT: Nice.
BRAD: So it's been great. But I think we come back to Glenn Beck himself who said this is not only Brad Thor's best thriller, but the best thriller he has ever read. And no sit-ups life. Who has time for sit-ups when you're reading Brad Thor novels?
STU: Especially as a guy who has actually written thrillers. It's amazing that he said yours was the best he's ever seen.
PAT: That was really generous of Glenn to say that. But, again, if he disputes that, he can call in right now and mention it.
BRAD: He's a giver. Right now.
STU: Can I ask one somewhat sensitive question here? I don't know how delicate you can be on this. And I don't want you to have to bite the hand that feeds you. But I'm interested to see, because you as you've talked about, Code of Conduct, about to be big time placement on the New York Times best-sellers list. A book written by a guy named Ted Cruz was recently released.
And he, despite outselling 18 of the 20 books on the best-seller list for the New York Times, was not included on the best-sellers list of the New York Times. He was accused of strategic bulk purchases, which not only does the publisher completely discount, but Amazon.com has come out and made a public statement that that did not happen.
Are you sick of the politics when it comes around this? Why can't we -- I mean, this is a number of books sold. It's a really easy way to find out how many books you sold.
PAT: When you think best-seller, you would think books that sell the best, wouldn't you?
BRAD: Right.
STU: Is it a thing we're imagining as far as agenda goes, or does that sort of thing actually exist?
BRAD: Well, first of all, let me take Pat to task. Pat, I'm an author. And my stock and trade is words. So I don't like when you play word games like that. Best-seller. It means selling a lot.
I think the American people have had enough of that kind of --
PAT: That kind of spin?
BRAD: Chicanery. Can we just stop that, please?
PAT: I apologize.
BRAD: Thank you, Pat.
But, yeah, listen, O'Reilly hates the New York Times. In fact, you know, he quotes other sources. He quotes the conservative book clubs list. And, in fact, O'Reilly even recently went after Publishers Weekly because he was complaining they didn't put his book Killing Reagan in their roundup of big fall books that were upcoming.
Listen, conservative, people to the right of center have had a lot of trouble with the New York Times' list because they will sell. The numbers are there. Then the New York Times will quote its own secret formula, saying, oh, it doesn't qualify or make the list.
The belief is, why would bias be absent from that list when bias isn't absent from any other nook or cranny of the New York Times? Stu, you're right. I say this to my own peril. They could be shifting the numbers right now to knock me out.
PAT: They sure could.
BRAD: My last three have been number one. We'll see what happens tomorrow. They could be sitting there. I'm sure they listen to this program, number one. So I just shot myself in the foot. You know --
STU: You're welcome, by the way. Brad.
BRAD: Yeah, the bias exists. So I think Ted Cruz has a valid complaint. So does his publisher. And I think Amazon, God bless them, that's really what they needed to put it over the top. And to say to the New York Times, okay, you proved it. Show us where these bulk purchases were. So I thought that was brilliant. And God bless Amazon for not taking a political -- just coming out and saying this is true.
PAT: Yeah, it was great. I'm really curious about who your influences were when you were coming up as a writer. Was there anybody that you kind of looked up to?
BRAD: Oh, you know what, I always tell young writers that you can't be a good writer without being a great reader. And that if you're looking for what to write. If you're a writer that wants to write, you should write what you love to read because that's what your passion is.
For me, I grew up Clancy. (all phonetic) Luke Haray. Freddie Foresife. Just amazing. And Louie La More. I like the western writer. Elmore Leonard. Some real greats in -- in fiction. So they definitely all influenced me. But I love the Cold War espionage stuff. And I'm a big fan still of guys still like Vince Flynn. God rest his soul. By the way, I know there's a lot of Vince Flynn fans in the audience. I got great news. I was thrilled to hear my buddy Kyle Mills, who is an actor, got selected by Vince's estate to carry on the Mitch Rapp character. And all the advanced praise for The Survivor is just awesome. So Vince's Mitch Rapp is coming back this fall in The Survivor. And I'm even excited to read it because that Mitch Rapp character is great. So after you read Code of Conduct, my new thriller which Glenn says is the best one he's ever read, I would highly recommend The Survivor. Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills.
STU: Awesome.
PAT: Okay. The book again is Code of Conduct. And the author, Brad Thor. Who will also be appearing later this week on radio again and also hosting Glenn's TV show on Thursday night during our month of terror shows. Thursday night's special focuses on national security terror alerts. We're excited to see you then too, Brad. Thank you for joining us.
BRAD: My pleasure. By the way, update from Glenn here, you both have just been given a 25 percent raise. Glenn, if I read that wrong, please call in now. So good news. What a day.
STU: I like this.
PAT: Great day, thanks, Brad.
STU: We need to manipulate the choice structure like this a little more often. This is good Cass Sunstein stuff we're pulling off. I like it.